Open Thread: How the Yanks use their money

As the Yankees sign big-name free agents or their own players to seemingly larger-than-life contracts, we often bemoan the expenses. We shudder at the idea of paying 41-year-old A-Rod $21 million, 36-year-old Mark Teixeira $22.5 million or CC whatever exorbitant amount he will make after leveraging his opt-out clause this winter. We worry that the dollars will reward players for past performances and that the spending will handcuff the Yankees, but perhaps we shouldn’t.

In an interesting piece on the Baseball Reference blog yesterday, Neil Paine looked at the 100 players making the highest percentage of team payroll, and the Yankees are surprisingly not well represented. A-Rod’s $32 million salary is only 15.8 percent of the Yanks’ payroll this year, good for 19th in baseball. Carlos Lee, who makes 26.9 percent of the Astros’ total payroll leads the pack.

Behind A-Rod, only two other Yankees make the top 100: CC Sabathia’s salary puts him at 49th overall. He makes 12 percent of the team payroll. Mark Teixeira’s salary represents 11.4 percent $202 million total, good for 62nd overall. For what it’s worth, the Red Sox have just two players on that list while the Mets have six.

For well-leveraged big-market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, the object would be to limit the number of players on the list. With many high-paid players, clubs become top-heavy, and that’s what has happened to the Mets. They’re paying Johan Santana, Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, David Wright, Francisco Rodriguez and Jose Reyes a combined 81 percent of their payroll which leads to little wiggle room for the rest of the 25-man roster. The Yankees have better maximized their economic might and can cover for so the more ungainly contracts.

Anyway, food for thought for the night. As we know, tonight’s game has been rained out, and no doubleheader is scheduled for tomorrow. The teams will instead make up tonight’s game on Thursday, Sept. 22 because Tampa Bay refused to play two on Saturday. Them’s the breaks.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have said they will skip Freddy Garcia’s spot in the rotation. A.J. Burnett will face David Price tomorrow, and CC Sabathia will close out the first half against James Shields on Sunday. In local action, the Mets and Giants play at 10:15 p.m. In New York, the MLB Network will carry the Seattle/Los Angeles game at the same time.